At last, one night, Partarieu, to disarm the suspicion of the natives, gave out that he could not carry all his baggage at once, and having first filled his coffers and bags with stones, he decamped with all his followers for the Senegal, leaving his tents pitched and his fires alight. His path was strewn with bales, arms, and animals. Thanks to this subterfuge, and the rapidity of their march, the English reached Bakel in safety, where the French welcomed the remnant of the expedition with enthusiasm. [Illustration: "He decamped with all his followers."] Caillie, attacked by a fever which nearly proved fatal, returned to St. Louis; but not recovering his health there, he was obliged to go back to France. Not until 1824 was he able to return to Senegal, which was then governed by Baron Roger, a friend to progress, who was anxious _pari passu_, to extend our geographical knowledge with our commercial relations. Roger supplied Caillie with means to go and live amongst the Bracknas, there to study Arabic and the Mussulman religion. Life amongst the suspicious and fanatic Moorish shepherds was by no means easy. The traveller, who had great difficulty in keeping his daily journal, was obliged to resort to all manner of subterfuges to obtain permission to explore the neighbourhood of his house. He gives us some curious details of the life of the Bracknas--of their diet, which consists almost entirely of milk; of their habitations, which are nothing more than tents unfitted for the vicissitudes of the climate; of their "_guehues_" or itinerant minstrels; their mode of producing the excessive _embonpoint_ which they consider the height of female beauty; the aspect of the country; the fertility and productions of the soil, &c. The most remarkable of all the facts collected by Caillie are those relating to the five distinct classes into which the Moorish Bracknas are divided. These are the _Hassanes_, or warriors, whose idleness, slovenliness, and pride exceed belief; the _Marabouts_, or priests; the _Zenagues_, tributary to the Hassanes; the _Laratines_; and the slaves. The _Zenagues_ are a miserable class, despised by all the others, but especially by the _Hassanes_, to whom they pay a tribute, which is of variable amount, and is never considered enough. They do all the work, both industrial and agricultural, and rear all the cattle.